Early Years Teams

Early Years Teams are specialist teams of social workers within Health and Social Care (HSC) Trusts who are responsible for the registration, inspection, monitoring and support of childminders and day care providers.

Registration and inspection system

By law, Social Services must operate a registration and inspection system for the following types of childcare services

day nurseries
playgroups
out-of-school care
childminders
summer and holiday schemes
crèches

Some types of childcare do not require registration and inspection, these include nannies/au pairs, services that cater for children over 12 years old, services which run for less than two hours a day or services which operate for less than six days per year.

For group daycare settings, such as day nurseries, playgroups and out-of-school care, social workers within Early Years Teams inspect premises at least annually.

They will check:

the suitability of the premises, ensuring that they are safe to be used as a facility to provide care to children
the suitability of the persons providing care, ensuring that there is no known reason why they are not able to work with children
that the standard of care offered is in keeping with that which is required by any registered facility
the suitability of equipment

Childminders are also inspected annually. Before childminders are registered, the social worker will check that their homes are safe for young children. A number of checks, including criminal record checks, are carried out on the prospective childminder and any member of the household who is over ten.

Help for parents

Early Years Teams can help parents by:

providing information and advice on day care services in their area
making available annual inspection reports of daycare facilities and childminders
ensuring that standards in daycare settings are at an acceptable level.

For more information, contact the Early Years team in your local Health & Social Care Trust.

Southern HSC Trust	Southern HSC Trust Early Years Services Gosford Place The Mall Armagh BT61 9AR Telephone: 028 37 522262	Southern HSC Trust Child Family Care Office 2 Old Lurgan Road Portadown BT63 Telephone: 028 38 333747	Southern HSC Trust Early Years Services Drumalane House Drumalane Road Newry BT35 8AP Telephone: 028 30 825000
South Eastern HSC Trust	South Eastern HSC Trust Early Years Services Dunlop Units 57 – 58 4 Balloo Drive Bangor BT19 7Q Telephone: 028 91 270672	South Eastern HSC Trust Early Years Services 91 Hillsborough Road Lisburn BT28 1JN Telephone: 028 92 501266	South Eastern HSC Trust Early Years Services Ward 25 Downshire Hospital Ardglass Road Downpatrick BT30 6RA Telephone: 028 44 613311
Belfast HSC Trust	Belfast Health & Social Care Trust Early Years Services 124 Stewartstown Road Belfast BT11 9JQ Telephone: 028 90 60 42 08	Belfast Health & Social Care Trust Glen Villa Knockbracken Health Care Park Saintfield Road Belfast BT8 8BH Telephone: 028 90 564977
Northern HSC Trust	Northern HSC Trust Early Years Team Suite 7 RiverHouse Castle Lane Waterside Coleraine BT51 3DR Telephone: 028 70 358158	Northern HSC Trust Early Years Team Ellis Street Carrickfergus BT38 8AZ Telephone: 028 93 315112
Northern HSC Trust	Northern HSC Trust Early Years Team Raphael House 11 B Finaghy Road Galgorm Ballymena Telephone: 028 25 635110	Northern HSC Trust Early Years Team 43 Queens Avenue Magherafelt BT45 6BX Telephone: 028 79 301700
Western HSC Trust	Western HSC Trust Early Years Team Tyrone & Fermanagh Hospital Omagh County Tyrone BT79 0NS Telephone: 028 82 835108	Western HSC Trust Early Years Team Clooney Hall Centre 36 Clooney Terrace Londonderry BT47 6AR Telephone: 028 71 320950	Western HSC Trust Early Years Team 2 Coleshill Road Enniskillen BT74 7HG Telephone: 028 66 344 000